Winds of Change

written by Charles DeVore

from Mouse Tracks September 2000

Well another Macworld Expo has come and gone. New products were announced and are not quite in the stores yet. Janet and I spent some time the following Sunday trying to find a Mac store in the Portland area that had any of the new Macs in stock. What we found was that it would probably be one to four weeks before stock was on hand.

I was a bit suprised to see Apple announce the dual processor G4 machines. The reason I was suprised is that in order to really use the dual mode the software must support it. Very little software will support it at the present time due to Apple's iron grip on upcoming products. The dual processor is really aimed at the System X release since all those products have to be rewritten or Carbonized anyway.

Many of the announcements were to be expected–like CPU speed upgrades for the iMacs–and some were not so earthshattering–like the changes in the iMac colors. Gone are the Orange, Blueberry, Strawberry, Grape, and Lime. In comes Ruby, Indigo, Sage, "improved" Graphite and Snow. Good news is the low end 350 MHz iMac is only $799.00 with 7 gig HD and 64 meg RAM (available in Indigo only). Confusing the lineup is the $999.00 iMac DV in Indigo and Ruby. These add 400 MHz, 10 gig HD, FireWire, VGA mirroring, and are Airport ready (no DVD drive). Next comes the $1,200.00 iMac DV+ coming in with a 450 MHz, a DVD ROM drive and 20 gig HD. Last but not least the iMac DV Special Edition bumping the speed to 500 MHz, 30 gig HD and bumping the RAM to 128 meg.

The new mouse was expected, along with the new extended keyboard. What was not expected was that it glows in the dark and the whole top of the mouse acts as a button. Until I have had a chance to use the keyboard and mouse I will hold off on my judgment of both those products. Michael Minamoto let me look at, and play with, his new Apple mouse at the PMUG store right after Macworld. It is the most professional looking mouse I've ever seen. However, only time will tell about the feel and button actions. One thing is for sure–it's not round!

There is a new version of iMovie (2.0) to go with the new machines. And for those of you who may already own one of the new machines, please note that Apple has already issued a updater for the 2.0 version.

The biggest breaking news of Macworld was the G4 cube: 450 and 500 MHz models of a 8 inch square convection cooled computer. The computer comes with a 20 or 30 gig HD, 64 or 128 meg of RAM, DVD ROM/Video. Two USB ports, two FireWire ports, Apple VGA port all located on the underside of the cube. The only thing I'm not sure of is just who they are aiming for with this product. With no PCI slots for adding a second video card or SCSI card, you are limited to USB and FireWire upgrades only. Yes I think it looks cool, but a computer that you insert the CD into like a pop-up toaster is not my cup of tea. The only thing I can think of was someone setting their coffee cup on top of the cube and then knocking it over. Priced at $1,799.00 and $2,299.00, even with its fancy 20 watt, all digital Harman Kardon speakers, I think I'd pass. By the way, it has a special all in one cable for video and power that fits only the new Apple monitors so plan on buying all Apple for this machine.

There are times when large companies find out their most well-laid plans are trashed. ATI found out how easy it is to tick off Steve Jobs right before Macworld. All you have to do is mention in a press release that your new video cards will be in several new machines that Apple will announce. Well, it seems Steve really likes to put on the show and since part of his surprise is now exposed, he shows what a great guy he really is by pulling every mention of the new video cards from the Apple demo areas, and removing the introduction of the new cards from the keynote. The only thing Mr. Jobs succeeded in doing was hiding a product that may have sold more machines. I know Steve was trying to tell the rest of the vendors not to step out of line but there is a vast difference between discipline and revenge. For all those wannabe vendors for Apple, this kind of action could drive them directly into the Intel world.

TechTool Pro 3.0 should be released by the time you read this. I'm not sure what's going on in their development of 3.0, but it was expected to be out in May. I'm ready for the new version now. It's the best tool I have for testing RAM and hardware problems.

MacWorld Magazine claims to have a "new look and feel for today's readers." I'm not sure who they think today's readers are, but they just lost me as a customer. It's a cross of MacAddict and Wired. The print is small and the articles even harder to find among the ads that are everywhere. I'll renew MacAddict and save my money when MacWorld runs out. It's truly a shame that MacWorld took over and put MacUser out of business.

Most folks still don't understand that if you're not using Photoshop filters, a G4 really isn't much faster than a G3 of the same MHz. There are currently lots of good deals on used and refurbished Blue and White G3s. Until Apple puts out System X with full support of the Altevic chip don't get too excited about more speed.

Apple for some reason had pulled the QuickTime movie ad for the Sage iMac. Rumor has it that the advertising firm didn't think it really expressed the selling motto they wanted to project. It seems the theme was sung by Kermit the Frog and the song is "It's Not Easy Being Green." Although the ad was a big hit at the Macworld Keynote, the advertisers thought the crowd there had too many Kermit fans. Is this really the advertising firm Apple wants to do business with? Have they no clue that Apple users think different? Hummmmm?

Just as a matter of interest, how many of you want a Snow iMac? Please e-mail me on what you think is the best color iMac. I'll publish the data in my next column. Send your vote in to charles@pmug.org.

You can reach me at charles@cdevsol.com.

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